TROUBLESOME teenager Ben Mills was just beginning to sort out his mixed-up life when he was found hanging in his remand cell, says his mum.

Ben, 18, from Thame, just could not face the prison sentence he was certain he would get, his mum Margaret Jennings told the Oxford Mail.

She and his 16-year-old girlfriend Hannah Gillett both said Ben was coming to the end of a very bad patch but the future was brighter. Hannah said: "He was a loving and caring person, very sensitive."

The teenager was found hanging in his cell at Reading Young Offenders' Institution on Friday, one day after being convicted on theft charges at Oxford Magistrates' Court.

Yesterday he was due to appear before Thame magistrates charged with theft, affray and causing actual bodily harm.

And on March 26 he was due to face a trial on charges of theft and having an offensive weapon. His mother Margaret, 43, a catering assistant at Rycotewood College, Thame, said: "No-one denies the things Ben did wrong in his short life.

"But there was another side to him and that was just coming to the fore.

"He was very soft-hearted and just got into trouble too young.

"He had a lot of regrets for what he had done but just did not know how to get out of this rut.

"He was starting to change and that is what makes his death so tragic."

She said probation and support services at prisons and remand centres had not helped him as much as they should have done.

Ben, a former pupil at John Hampden and Lord Williams's schools in Thame and Northfield School in Blackbird Leys, lived with Hannah at a friend's home.

Hannah said Ben's interests were music and sport. He was a devoted Liverpool fan and their theme song will be played at his funeral in St Mary's parish church, Thame, on Friday at 11am.

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